Serena

Venus Williams was dancing on the court during an exhibition victory in Lagos, Nigeria, over younger sister Serena, who wasn't in nearly as good a mood. The Southern Californian siblings are on a two-nation tour promoting women's rights in Africa, where the elder Williams picked up a 6-4, 7-5 victory on Friday in 91-degree heat on the clay courts of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club. “For me to get a win against Serena, it means 2013 is going to be a great year,” said Venus, who at one point took a moment between games to dance to “Oliver Twist” by Nigerian singer D'banj.

Superstar athletes Peyton Manning, LeBron James and Serena Williams led their colleagues with endorsements of food and beverages that are calorie-dense and unhealthful - sending mixed messages about diet and health, researchers said. Of 512 brands endorsed by 100 top athletes, nearly a quarter of them (122) were for food and beverages - 44 different brands in 2010, the year studied by researchers from Yale, Stanford, Duke and Harvard universities. (Some brands appeared more than once on the list.)

June 27, 2011 | By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times / for the Booster Shots blog

Tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams were both ousted by less experienced players at Wimbledon on Monday -- Serena by France's Marion Bartoli and Venus by Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova. Was it because, in the great tradition of sports narratives, the underdogs were inspired to take their frontrunning rivals down a notch? Well, not necessarily. According to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, underdogs aren't the ones supplied with extra motivation -- the favored athlete is. People worked about 30% harder when they were ranked higher than their competitors, according to the researchers.

Thanks to a YouTube video (with a hat tip to Larry Brown Sports ), we get to see how much Serena Williams wants to win, even when she plays a first-round doubles match with her sister Venus in China. Williams double-faulted on match point and that led to a classic Serena anger attack. At least this time only the racket suffered and no referees were hurt, physically or mentally, in the attack. Only a poor racket. But Venus and Serena did sweetly congratulate their vanquishers.

Serena and Venus Williams , the top-seeded women's doubles team, were upset in the quarterfinals Wednesday by Vera Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina , 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. While the loss was notable in that the Williams sisters seemed on course for winning a fifth consecutive Grand Slam doubles title, it was also concerning because Serena played with her right shoulder heavily taped. That was a new addition to her wardrobe. The sisters declined to be interviewed after the loss and will be assessed a fine.

It is raining outside Cafe Zinc. Serena, in a Naugahyde bomber's jacket with faux leopard collar, tries to hold her cup of hot chocolate with her pinkie extended, but the whole thing is too heavy and she almost spills it before her mother reaches over and catches it. "I asked you not to do that," says her mother, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Her mom also wears a bomber's jacket, but hers is real leather. And without the leopard collar.

Lisa Dillman wrote in her tennis column (April 2) that fans in Miami booed Venus Williams' apparent lack of effort against her sister, Serena, in their semifinal match last weekend. My, my, my! Could those Miami fans be a bunch of racists like we supposedly were in Indian Wells a year ago when Venus defaulted her semifinal match against Serena? Or could it simply be that tennis fans don't like it when a player (any player) appears to tank a match, whether it happens while in the locker room (Indian Wells)

'That aura of invincibility that they had after the Australian Open has definitely shrunk. The other women have a lot more confidence in the ability to put a dent in there and maybe even win, not just hold their own.' Martina Navratilova, on Serena and Venus Williams

NEW YORK -- Top-seeded Serena Williams won her 17th Grand Slam title and her fifth U.S. Open on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 victory over second-seeded Victoria Azarenka on Arthur Ashe Stadium court. When Azarenka's final service return went long, Williams pumped her fists and yelled, "Come on. " Williams had also won the French Open this year and seemed well on her way to her second straight U.S. Open title when she led 7-5, 4-1 Sunday. But the 31-year-old Williams was broken twice when serving for the match and then lost the tiebreaker to the 24-year-old Azarenka, who won the Australian Open this year.

NEW YORK - It's hard to rate 17 Grand Slam titles. Is the first one the best, or the one achieved on a surface most unfriendly to your game? Is it the time you came back from injuries, or the rally from a two-game deficit in the final set? Or perhaps it's this one - the U.S. Open championship Serena Williams won Sunday with a 7-5, 6-7 (6) 6-1 victory over Victoria Azarenka in 2 hours 45 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Williams, the defending champion, once led, 7-5, 4-1, and CBS announcer Mary Carillo left the television booth during the second set to be ready for the trophy presentation.

NEW YORK -- Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, seeded fifth, knocked unseeded Serena and Venus Williams out of the U.S. Open women's doubles, 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals Friday. Serena Williams, who had first beaten fifth-seeded Li Na of China in a women's singles semifinal, took about an hour break and then went out onto Arthur Ashe Stadium to play doubles with her sister. But it seemed Venus was more tired that Serena. She put many volleys into the net and struggled getting her first serve in. Venus and Serena only play doubles at Grand Slam events and the Olympics and therefore are usually unseeded, yet they've won 13 major titles and three Olympic gold medals together.

NEW YORK - From her first massive forehand to her final well-placed service winner, top-seeded and defending champion Serena Williams left no doubt Friday against Li Na. Williams beat the fifth-seeded Li, 6-0, 6-3, to advance to the U.S. Open finals. There was a nearly 14-minute game when Li saved six match points in the second set, and it was full of creative points worthy of the standing ovations both players received. But when Li finally won the game it was only to keep her behind, 5-3, with Williams ready to serve out the match.

NEW YORK -- Top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci had beaten Venus and Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Thursday at the U.S. Open, the result was reversed. The Italians were overpowered by the unseeded Williams sisters, 6-3, 6-1, in the women's doubles quarterfinals. The sisters weren't challenged. Leading, 5-1, in the second set, Serena gave her team its first match point with a ferocious return winner. And Venus took that cue with one of her own to finish off the match.

NEW YORK - Serena Williams, the No. 1-ranked player in the world and the top seed and defending champion at the U.S. Open needed only 52 minutes to win a quarterfinal match, 6-0, 6-0, over her 18th-seeded Spanish opponent, Carla Suarez Navarro. It was Suarez Navarro's 25th birthday, and Williams made sure she would be able to have an early dinner and birthday cake. Next up for Williams will be fifth-seeded Li Na of China. "I expect a great match," Williams said of that semifinal matchup.

Martinas Hingis and Navratilova need to accept that the game of tennis has passed them by. I have never read a negative comment coming from either Williams sister regarding Martina Navratilova and her lifestyle. As for Martina Hingis' comment; if the Williams sisters have an advantage because of their race, does that mean the entire African American race is playing on the other side of the net? If that's the case, next time Venus or Serena wins, forward my part of the check to the L.A. Times.

If your guilty pleasure is romance novels, dim the lights, get out the candles, lounge on a silk divan--and turn on the TV. The CBS Sunday movie offering at 9 p.m. is for you: a frothy romp in an early 19th-Century setting, called "A Hazard of Hearts." Others may want to take a look just for the fun of it. Tongue-in-cheek (the villains die with bons mots on their lips), this teleplay by Terence Feely, based on Barbara Cartland's novel, is not to be taken seriously, despite a heavyweight cast.